Question: This fine-looking band’s photo was taken quite a few years back. Can you tell where it was taken, the names of any of its members and the year?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo showed a life-sized figure of a Civil War soldier being removed from the top of a multi-tiered monument. The photo was taken in Riverview Cemetery on Sept. 6, 1986, as the entire monument was being dismantled and prepared for travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, where it would be refurbished.
Cast in 1888, the monument had been in the cemetery for almost 50 years. For the preceding 60 years it had monitored the comings and goings at the Four Corners.
Initially erected in front of the Methodist Church at the juncture of Charlotte and West Genesee streets, the statue was moved to the cemetery in 1946 to permit widening of West Genesee Street.
In 1885 Baldwinsville’s newly formed GAR post spearheaded a civic movement to memorialize the community’s uniformed patriots. A large statue would be procured and erected in a place of prominence. The Bridgeport Bronze Works of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was chosen to provide the piece.
During this period statues, as well as other types of monuments, including cemetery “stones,” were manufactured using white bronze metal (zinc) cast into molds that had the appearance of stone. The monuments were hollow and many were available through both the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. They had removable panels that could be custom cast to suit the need.
Baldwinsville’s monument featured a 6 foot tall figure of a Union soldier. The lower panels bore the names of all area veterans from all previous wars, the Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War and the Civil War. The monument was 28 feet high with a base measuring 7 feet square and 4 feet high. It weighed 11,400 pounds and required a base 9 feet deep with a footing of Onondaga limestone. Cast into its panels were the names of 792 veterans plus battle names and GAR information.
The cost of the memorial was $3,000 plus the loss of the “Baldwin Willow,” a beloved village landmark which occupied the location selected for the monument. The tree had flourished on this site since it rooted from a riding switch used by pioneer Betsy Baldwin some 60 years earlier.
The monument was unveiled on Oct. 12, 1887. Village buildings, homes and utility poles were swathed in yards of bunting. Flags flew from every place that could be outfitted with a bracket. The village was a mass of red, white and blue. The parade was over one mile long. Hundreds of B’villians and strangers crowded the Four Corners to witness the great event. It was a day of unparalleled ceremony and celebration.
The monument’s later move to the cemetery was unceremonious and lacked sufficient preparation. The soldier was erected without his infrastructure fully assembled and placed upon an inadequate foundation. Over time the panels began to separate. The soldier began to lean and was anchored with supporting guy wire. By 1985 the monument was in crisis. Ohio’s Karkadoulias Bronze Art Company had the expertise to restore the statue.
Led by Baldwinsville’s American Legion Post 113 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 153, community fundraising and grant applications covered the $24,000 restoration price tag.
Generous donations of goods and services provided the additional support required to carry out the project.
The monument returned to Riverview Cemetery Oct. 11, 1987, where it was erected as the centerpiece of a new veterans’ memorial park. Today the silent sentinel stands erect as he watches over the resting place of hundreds of his fellow Americans, many of whom were comrades in arms.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 332 with your guess by noon Friday. If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s newspaper, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
